Let's see, baseball, football, speed dating, nice mild late summer weather, this is a three day weekend for those who work, BBQ, autumn is right around the corner, so how about your favorite palces to watch the trees change colors, photography, fish eye lenses...

Maybe she can impress foreign dignitaries with her fancy polished fingernails and a nice salmon dinner.

Yes, because I'm sure that's all Palin, a woman who managed to be the most popular governor in America and who possesses more expertise and experience on energy issues than anyone else on either ticket, will have to discuss with foreign dignitaries. But tell me, how does it feel to have your strings pulled by the McCain campaign?

Just figured out whose voice Sarah Palin's was vaguely reminding me and a couple of other women of today during her appearance (which we did not see, but rather only heard, because we weren't in a location facing the TV in the salon): Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich.

No. I'm talking about the scandal with lefty blogs - they were caught coordinating talking points, controlling the "message" of the day for the sheep to swallow, like Pravda. They called their meetup "townhall".

"Palin's steelworker husband may help in Michigan as much as Romney would have. Imagine — the blue-collar stump speeches won't refer to a great-grandfather who was a miner (Joe Biden, we're looking at you...) or a father who was a mill worker (John "99% Honest" Edwards), but to her husband and herself."

Packing. Buying shoes and maybe some clothes in a sales-tax-free state. Taking some pictures of particular places for an album I've been trying to put together for two years/three summers. Changing a tire. Packing. Doing a couple of quick computer tutorials (for others). Updating a website. Witnessing three baptisms and a reception. Packing. Eating a "real" sub! Shopping for a wedding anniversary and two birthdays, and also a condolence card for the family of relative who died. Other odds and ends. Driving down to West Virgina (6-1/2 hours, depending).

I am DYING to hear all the subjects that Cindy "assessed" and how her insights will inform the McCain platform!!

She's is reportedly traveling on behalf of the UN World Food Program and the Halo Trust for landmine removal; she serves on the board of the latter. She's not assessing the situation on behalf of her husband; she's assessing it on behalf of her charity work.

The landmine issue is particularly key, since both sides deployed a lot of mines during the conflict.

Wine making is a delicate process, subject to a number of variables that can render a wine undrinkable. Cultivating grapes too early, exposing a vintage to excessive weather conditions, and incorrectly aging a varietal are just some of the factors that affect the quality of wine. Even if every step of the wine making process is meticulously monitored, a wine can still be sub par is it isn't properly served.

Yes! This is exactly what I've been thinking! For months, and then once again today.

Except that I highly doubt Palin feels that way. She strikes me as more the partnership-in-life type.

Right, I think so too, for her. But the effect on women is to see that as being her own man, instead of needing a man to send on those sorts of errands; and that feeds into something that makes other women nevertheless need men.

``Got no man kicking in the stall,'' as Imus sometimes put it to callers.

Do you need men or not? Both.

So it's not soap opera, but hooks in ahead of the genre, if I can put it that way. It hooks into something that also makes soap opera possible.

To include both sides, here's a press release from Chambers (art hotel) in Minneapolis, in which it talks about the art-related events it will feature during the Republican convention. In addition:

"During the Republican National Convention all guests of the hotel will even receive a handmade piece of art via the Art-o-Mat(R), a retired cigarette vending machine that has been converted to vend pocket-sized art.

Hmm. Well, RH, this morning it was female customers*** who complained about SoapNet playing on the TV (errghhh) and asked that the channel be switched to news (to try and catch Palin speak). No doubt this little anecdote cuts both ways.

(Not a coy way of referring to myself. It wasn't I. I was ignoring the TV in favor of surfing on the iPhone, when I my hands weren't otherwise occupied.)

Startling choice. I was sure he'd pick Pawlenty. As C4 pointed out in several threads it's a PC choice, she doesn't have enough experience. (Though, truth be told, if she were topping the ticket, I'd vote for her without hesitation, for the same reason I would've voted for Obama before I found out he was part of the Chicago machine.)

This morning, though, I see that it's a rope-a-dope. Obama's supporters won't be able to resist attacking her over experience--which rebounds nastily on him--and on gender--which will alienate some disaffected HRC voters.

AJ Lynch: Thanks for your suggestions, excellent all, and second them. But I lived in the area for many, many, many years and return frequently. This is my second trip in 5 weeks, and the last time I stayed a couple of weeks (fewer than usual).

First summer in years I haven't made it up to Philly (I usually visit for work and pleasure), so no cheese steak for me. Maybe later this fall.

Nutmeg is not grown Connecticut, one of the largest states in the United States. It comes from trees grown in Southeast Asia and Australasia. Granada is known as the Nutmeg Island.

The Nutmeg State is so called because of fraud perpetrated by early swindlers who carved pieces of wood and marketed them as the more expensive nutmeg. The bastards. So Connecticut is like Oklahoma in this regard. The term Sooners also having an origin in fraud.

These startling items were gleaned from the internet which makes them 100% of fact. Except for the largest state part. I just threw that in.

Now this was interesting. It appears that the cowardly lion, Chris Matthews and the rabid dog, Keith Olbermann cannot behave civilly in front of the TV cameras. I guess the two got into a hissy fit while before interviewing Steny Hoyer.

This is the most interesting part: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer sat quietly on-screen, waiting to be interviewed.

It must have been difficult for Mr. Hoyer. A politician forced to sit quietly.

Oh, for the Alphaliberals of the world, this came from a reliable news source- WSJ; not wikitikidiki, or Huffingglue.

Reader -- the percentage surprises me, but the culprits don't. I attended a network security conference a decade ago in which the security consultant talked about how -- over and over -- the security breach he was called in to investigate was the work of an internal IT administrator.

Given the above, I’d like propose the following question: what non-obvious things can nerds who are so inclined do to help the Democrats win in November? I’m not talking about voting, donating money, licking envelopes, or standing on street corners “Baracking the vote”: the first two are easy and obvious while the second two are unsuitable for nerds. The sorts of ideas I’m looking for are ones that (1) exploit nerds’ nerdiness, (2) go outside the normal channels of influence, (3) increase nerds’ effective voting power by several orders of magnitude, (4) are legal, (5) target critical swing states, and (6) can be done as a hobby. [Emphasis added.]

Like the anti-McCain posters here - they are afraid today. Their messiah has no accomplishments to speak of, and that's why they can't have a civil discussion - they just make drive-by stabs. There's nothing at all to Obama, and they know it.

Which,of course, is gong to make this election SOOOOOO much easier to enjoy.

Sarah Palin has executive experience as Governor of the largest state in the Union - and as Mayor of the fastest-growing town in Alaska. (Personally, I like small-town America).

On the experience issue, McCain and Palin win.

Besides, the "foreign policy experience" argument is non-serious. What was the "foreign policy experience" of Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt or Margaret Thatcher?

A great President is a great leader. Leadership skills are most clearly seen in people who have actually led: like McCain and Palin.

The "foreign policy experience" argument is actually a negative to me. I'd rather have someone with clear leadership skills as an American chief executive (like Governor Palin) - or military command experience (like McCain) - not someone who sat on some foreign affairs committee in Congress (like Biden).

Also - Palin's approval ratings in Alaska have consistently been over 80%! She's a leader. So is McCain. Obama and Biden are legislators - they've never held an executive or command position in their lives.

Aaaaand Richard brings the misogyny!---Now, blake, don't you go all blonde on us.

"Misogyny" means "hatred of women." I don't hate women. I just can't stand stupid blondes who vomit out every vapid excuse for a thought that enters their arid little minds.

Ann's blog is a continuing testament to the blonde "mind." She feels threatened by Sarah Palin, so she instantly makes catty remarks about Palin's hairdo. Nice contribution to the political discussion, Ann [eyeroll]. How obvious can one be?

Also, reader, that geek--and, yeah, I'm fully willing to discuss the difference between nerds and geeks, that's just the kind of nerdeek I am--blames Bush for Katrina.

The problem with engineers is that they very often don't apply the rigorous principles of engineering to anything except their area of understanding. Also, the tend to have very limited and speciifc (deep, rather than broad) interests.

seven asked: "How can I walk into a restaurant and avoid ordering red wine that tastes acidy?"

1. Ask the somalier (or waitperson, though this can be problematic in many restaurants) about the wines and describe your preferences. Solicit recommendations in your price range. In the absence of a somalier,2. Avoid young (recent vintage years) cabernet sauvignons especially. The characteristic you don't like might well be tannin.

Some foods accentuate the bitterness in a wine, or destroy the experience completely. During a classic 5-course French meal, the wine is removed from the table before the salad (#4) course because the classic dressing is oil and vinegar with a touch of poupon mustard for an emulsifier.

Don't hesitate to ask questions. No one can be expected to be familiar with all the wines which might be found on a restaurant wine list (or in a wine shop). If you get attitude, eat/shop elsewhere.

…if, for a while, the ruse of desire is calculable for the uses of discipline soon the repetition of guilt, justification, pseudo-scientific theories, superstition, spurious authorities, and classifications can be seen as the desperate effort to “normalize” formally the disturbance of a discourse of splitting that violates the rational, enlightened claims of its enunciatory modality.

Ann, when you get a chance, could you please give us some perspective on the number of comments the Palin pick has elicited here? I'm counting well over 1,000. Have you seen anything like this before, or is this level of buzz something new?

I doubt Althouse is really blond. However, if gaseous blond taunting is the best you can bring here, please leave. It's embarrassing drivel. The Warren G. Harding Elementary School blog is mouse click away.

This morning, though, I see that it's a rope-a-dope. Obama's supporters won't be able to resist attacking her over experience--which rebounds nastily on him--and on gender--which will alienate some disaffected HRC voters.

Blake, what I see is that they cannot attack her TOO much, because we women are watching out for how he and his staffers treat her candidacy, and her person.

In any other situation, her gender would've been attackable.

Democrats like to talk a great game about identity politics, and being supportive of that, but they let down the boom in sexism when they have to.

Witness their attack of "Hillary! 2008", which was despicably sexist.

So women, both pro-Hillary Democrats or women of any political stripe who wanted a woman for SOMETHING this year, are looking at Obama.

And they are saying:

"You're treating this woman badly too? For the second time?"

It'll go from a Hillary-thing, to a woman-thing, and that's disastrous for Obama's candidacy.

What we have now is the conflation of experience with capability. They aren't the same.

Going back just a few hundred years and staying in one hemispher, start with Napoleon and consider Simon Bolivar, Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, the Wright brothers, Einstein, Watson and Crick, Bill Gates (or Steve Jobs). All are evidence of the triumph of capability over experience.

One of the best definitions of leadership I've read came from a prosaic business book. CEOs (leaders) are obsessed with outcomes.

So, forget the comparison of Obama and Palin's experience. Which of the two has actually accomplished something?

What has the very distinguished, very experienced Joe Biden accomplished, for that matter?

Code words in the wine description like "mellow", "smooth", "silky" usually indicate a red with little or no tannins. Merlots often fall into this category. So do Zinfandels, which don't age well because of the lack of tannin and will be young - and well-priced.

Pinot noirs tend to be less tannic but more expensive: small grapes, hard to grow, less yield per acre.

Syrahs and petit syrahs are frequently good values, full-bodied, fruity and "smooth".

Those are the principal domestic reds:

cabernet sauvignonmerlotzinfandelpinot noirsyrah

There hundreds of varietals and imports. And principal varietals vary by country. Australia exports tons (literally) of shiraz and shiraz blends. Shiraz is their term for syrah, and those wines are uaually very drinkable.

You are pretty ignorant of US foreign policy yourself if you think the Federal Government has state officials negotiate or sign agreements with foreign officials. Especially given that little part in the Constitution about States being prohibited from making agreements or treaties with foreign nations.

=====================Lem said... Sarah Palin get's more done before breakfast than all of the accomplishments of an Obama's typical full day, even w/o the uhs and duhs.

Uh, yeah - because we all know that working Moms are automatically superior to anything a man does all day (PC Rule #17)

=====================

It may have worked short-term, because the controversy about the pick just drowned out Obama&Hillary.

If it follows the arc of Geraldine Ferraro 24 years ago there will be a solid week of estrogen-fueled euphoria, housewives and feminists and "supportive men" all shouting how Great America just proved itself to be....

Then the questions and scrutiny start.

Geraldine did not fare well in inquiries into her life and views, and flubbed a lot of questions, and was seen as a mistake within a month.

We will see how Hillaryistas and everyday women feel once they know more about Palin. Yes, lots of inspiring biography, but a hardcore Right to Life extremist that wants abortions outlawed for rape, incest, and severe fetal defects..along with all "elective" ones.

And that "little scandal" of her trying to get a cop fired so he would lose a custody case with Palin's sister then firing the State Police Commissioner when he told her it was illegal, and an abuse of power?

This VP nomination, and McCains shot - could possibly be over as fast as Harriet Miers was over - if the nepotism and abuse of power charges, then Palin lying about her involvement, are born out..

We are going to be subjected to a frenzied period of dung throwing from the left and the Obamedia. The left is in big trouble, and the more intelligent of them (stretching a point) will quickly realize that. Nasty probably won't begin to describe the behavior, and forget fair coverage. Outright lies and distortion will be the order of the Dem day, which is what passes for clever politics over there in the swamp. Now they are truly desperate, and it won't be pretty. It also won't be effective. Obama/Biden will lose. I'm counting the days.

Why do I quixotically think they will be less sexist, less racist, less this or that or the other?

Is because of some kind of double dipping, where I think it's prejudice overload if you lump all these attributes together?

When my parents joined a country club, they found out later that no Jews were allowed. They were shocked. They thought that wasn't allowed in the US. Shortly after, they found out no blacks were allowed either, and no single women.

They resigned soon after.

I guess my point is, I would've resigned the moment I found out no Jews were allowed, because all the rest naturally follows from the minds of bigots.

Alaska has excellent sourdough starter. Several vendors offer it on eBay presently. Some even come with a booklet to, er, get you started.

But then the entire northwestern seaboard has excellent sourdough starter.

You can collect it yourself while visiting by simply setting a collection trap which amounts to a slurry of flour and water. This can be done successfully even by exceedingly careless handling, as my brother once proved.

I email a group of friends and family of some 16 persons every day. I take photographs and talk about everything. It's rather like a diary. I'm open and honest. Recently my older brother asked me to add a name of a relative I didn't know I had to my mailing list. A woman one of his sons married. He told me that he warned her I was strange and had a tendency toward harsh language, but that is why they love me. This, coming from a religious fundamentalist. I complied. I haven't heard one word from her, now a year has elapsed, so I haven't a clue how it all going over.

My list includes a gay man entirely beholden to a certain political party. Guess which one. Similar situation. He's been emailed much longer. I sent hundreds of emails to this man, but haven't received a single one until last night. He said he appreciated the photographs and enjoyed my "spirit," along with a few other complements. Then continued, that when it came to things political, in so many words, I'm paraphrasing, "would I please shut up."

I told him that wasn't going to happen.

But I've been sort of pissed off about that all day. The cunt. How dare this fellow not say anything at all for so long until it came to that. He's a decade or so my senior and wrongly referred to my perceptive observations as "screeds." I felt a need to respond directly to that. I'm inclined to drop his name from the list and have him fade from memory, like the end of Charlie Chaplain movie, as my military brat training has so aptly prepared me. But that would be a shame, then, wudn'it?

Awhile back a fellow high school alumnus sent out a nice, wide email blast with the following introduction:

"Dear friend of mine, I assembled these quotes last night. They made my liberal soul feel quite good; some are very funny, some are profound. Enjoy and feel free to pass along." The list was composed largely of insults of conservatives, such as Woodrow Wilson's "A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits."

What a presumptuous bastard!

I replied with a single quote from Ronald Reagan, "It's not that liberals are ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Sure enough, his presumptuousness was confirmed: "Zounds! Quite an unexpected repartee! I always figured you for a liberal...!"

Yeah, well: "I get that a lot. And I do take that as a compliment." (I do, really.)

"Well, I'm sure that you're at least socially liberal in some respects...otherwise you would not engage in any dialogue whatsoever with your plump, bald, openly queer classmate from eons past."

I won't share the rest, except to say that it was a cordial exchange of philosophies and a discovery of a little common ground---but probably not enough common ground for his comfort. He's a good guy, and he knows I feel that way, but to many self-described queer it's just not possible to have a friendly relationship with someone who doesn't support their entire agenda.

I think the same is true of many on the left.

I'm sure he and I will exchange a friendly hello when we meet at the next reunion, he's not gonna be buying me a drink.

Blake, what I see is that they cannot attack her TOO much, because we women are watching out for how he and his staffers treat her candidacy, and her person.

I totally agree.

However, I maintain they will not be able to stop themselves, any more than they can stop crying "RACIST!"

It's hard-coded.

I'd like to be wrong, but a quick survey of the morning's antics suggests otherwise, with pundits suddenly becoming concerned for Palin's youngest's welfare and tons of comments on her looks and beauty-queen past.

Ya can't win. Hillary got it for not being good-looking enough; Palin will get it for being too good looking.

reader_iam said..."Althouse started out a red head. Which, if you wanna go all stereotype, is perfect. Well, maybe she started out bald, technically speaking, for all I know. But you know what I mean."

As early as I can remember, I had red hair, but my parents always insisted that I was born with coal black hair that had a blonde "halo" and everyone was amazed. This hair fell out, as infant hair does, and it grew back red. No lie!

Seven: In addition to the excellent basic advice you've gotten, I would only add, AVOID SPANISH WINES if you don't like tannin.

**Pucker**

Spanish wines, especially Rioja reds, are commonly the essence of the heavily oaked, tannic experience. Allowed to breathe a sufficient time (an hour or two), they do well with many meat dishes. But if you value your untanned palette, do not drink them out of the bottle without letting them sit around open ("breathing") for as long as possible.

I was going to say that the best common ground is found over good drink, but that really is romantic nonsense. Any lovely thing— wine, good music, books, art—can become a cudgel. Just be aware that if you talk about wine, for example, there are infinite numbers of people waiting to jump on you and "win" the conversation be demonstrating just what a low-rent idiot you are.

The eye is attracted to beauty, motion, and conflict. Palin can compete with Obama on his own terms. She looks good in a t-shirt talking to grunts in fatigues....Good looks and Kodak moments are probably not the most solid way of judging a candidate. Tell that to Obama.....She really does lack experience. Sadly she was not president of the Harvard Law Review which, as everyone knows, is the single most important experience a leader can ever have.....She did not have a Quayle moment in her introduction today to the American public. She's very attractive. Hustler will offer large sums to ex boyfriends, and we will soon learn every little thing about her life. Nobody makes it thru life without a few pratfalls, so beware. But so far, so good.

Well I just came in from the pool and we are getting ready for dinner and a show. The Magic show is over and it's time to party.

An interesting fact about urinals in Vegas. There is an artwork over the urinal in the bathroom in the lobby which is a wall of water, you know a rush of water with the sound of running water. It would make a dead man pee.

The funniest urinal is off the casino floor which has huge photos of beautiful women over every urinal. Some of them are pointing and laughing, some have a magnifying glass, some look really impressed. It's pretty funny.

Energy: As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.

On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five.

The legislature had been trying for 30 years to authorize something like this and, up until now, had blown it. Palin got it through. Getting it off the ground, the state says, will be the biggest construction project in U.S. history.

Palin considers the $26 billion project her biggest accomplishment as governor. "It was not easy," she told IBD. "Alaska has been hoping and dreaming for a natural gas pipeline for decades. What it took was getting off the dime and creating a competitive market in Alaska."(snip rest)

She served on the Alaska oil & gas state commission (Whatever it's called.) She won her elections up front --- not by AA or clever politcal dirty tricks. She successfully went after corruption includng her own party. There is plenty of information on her accomplishments on the net which is specific, measureable, and are things that actually worked -- unlike the Annenburg Challenge. (She sold the governor's jet on eBay and made the state a profit? Is that true?)

I keep hearing the latest Obama meme that he's only interested in doing things that work.

Show me the money.

Obama is running against McCain. But the Dems would be wise before they dump on Palin's "small town, small population" experience. She can close on a 30 year old project worth $26 billion plus and apparently knows what she's talking about....

I expect the Obama folks are going to pull out their truly ugly stuff. Get ready.

you would not engage in any dialogue whatsoever with your plump, bald, openly queer classmate from eons past

Here's a random question: what's the deal with "queer"?

I saw an ad a while back advertising for a support group for, quote, "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, and queer residents of San Diego". So we've got men who like men, women who like women, men who like both, women who like both, men becoming women, men who identify as women, women who identify as men, women becoming men... who the sweet merciful crap is left over to identify as "queer"? Heterosexuals? Are we queer now and nobody told me? Because I'm not sure I've got the right wardrobe for it.

Is "queer" just a euphemism for "frankly we don't know what the hell that guy's deal is, but he sure isn't heterosexual" or what? Or is it just a synonym for "gay" that got included in the list in a fit of thesaurisizing?

Hey Theo, a funny wine story for you. We went to Strip Steak for dinner the other night. Now this is a big time fancy Vegas steakhouse and the meal was pretty pricey. So anyway they hand me the wine list and I notice that there are no prices. Now I know a little about wines and I sure didn't want to pick a $1,000 bottle by mistake.So I went for a nice little Rioja that I let sit for a minute or too but it was perfect for the steaks we ordered. As well as the crazy macaroni and cheese made with butter and fotina cheese that was really great. And it was a very reasonable price. You should always know just enough about wine to avoid ordering out of your weight class.

Of course I could have asked the guy how much it cost, but I am a man and I don't ask questions.

How do you think she has five supposed children, 2000 hours of flying time as a pilot, been able to work on a fishing boat in treacherous waters, AND found time to advance to the position she finds herself in?

Good story, Trooper. Yep, a little Rioja is perfect with strip steaks. And it won't kill your budget—usually.

I found myself in a similar situation three years ago at the Belaggio. My company was throwing a banquet for an important but amusing Englishman. He took a look at the wine list with all those unpriced and unknown Italian wines, and handed it to me, saying, "Oh, Theo. You're the Italian wine expert!"

I was no such thing. What I was was scared shitless at blowing our budget with the ambiguously priced wines.

In the end, my native sense of cheapness got us by just under budget, but I don't know how, as I had never heard of most of the wines.

Something just said "inexpensive" in the "if you have to ask, you shouldn't be here" descriptions.

Seven Machos said... How can I walk into a restaurant and avoid ordering red wine that tastes acidy?

HELP!

7m, PRich gave you excellent advice. I'm going to add and simplify what he said.

1. red/white. Almost all wine grape juice is white when it is crushed, though the skins are often red. One makes red wine from those grapes by leaving the skins on the juice. as the juice or "must" ferments, it picks up the color from the skins. Along with color it also picks up tannins which form tannic acid, e.g. the pucker or acid you are complaining about.

2. Young wines have more tannic acid than mellow, more mature wines. Aging wines heavy in tannins such as Cabernet Sauvignon result in a mellow complex wine, excellent for fatty foods (e.g. steaks). Drunk young they are bitter and puckery. Canernets you will find while dining out are almost always too young for drinking unless you want to pay an arm and a leg.

4. Pinot Noir though the lowest in tannin is also a tough grape to grow and the results are mixed from year to year in every region it grows in. If the year (vintage is good) you'll pay a premium, if it's bad, you get expensive bad wine.

5. The safe bet in most situations is Merlot. a Low tannin, easy to grow grape, without a huge following, that is good, drunk young and priced reasonably.

In my experience, whole nutmegs last virtually forever. Buy the can of whole nutmegs; grate as needed (there are special nutmeg graters that will even hold a few nutmegs.)

What is queer?

Nowadays, queer is either whatever is not straight, or queer is whatever is not defined -- "miscellaneous". If you're a lesbian who is questioning if she was born with the proper genitalia, you're queer. If the restroom dilemma can be answered by "Yes," "No," or "Maybe," you're queer.

Wine acidity

There are two types of acidity in wine, pH, and volatile acidity (essentially vinegariness) PH in wine runs from 3 to 4, with red wines having higher pH (and thus not as tart) than whites. So if you don't have a problem with white wines, it's probably not pH.

Volatile acidity can be detected by swirling the wine in your mouth, essentially sniffing it the back way.

You could be objecting to tannins, which come from both grape skins and from oak aging. Does the wine make you pucker? But wine does not neatly divide up by variety into tannic and not tannic wines.

I would suggest benchmarking your taste, by trying some fairly available wines, and picking out one that suits your taste. Then tell the waiter/sommelier: I want something like X. And if what he brings is way off the mark, refuse it.

As far as aging potential: I just opened a bottle of our 91 merlot, and it's fine.

FLS -- Interesting that you mention pH. We had to do a thing in my ninth-grade science class where we tasted little swabs with varying degrees of pH. Were to report when we tasted bitterness.

Well, I tasted bitterness on the first one. The teacher didn't believe me. She said it was virtually nothing. It didn't help that I was a bit of a class clown then. So she had me taste one of the ones in the middle of the range.

Good one, Meade! I will be sending her my prayers, and all those Althousians especially in harm's way there.

Thanks, Meade, and VB, and all the Althousians I know are praying and thinking about us.

The answer to "what are you doing for Labor Day" is "evacuating." I'm going to take some space here in this "anything other than" thread to sort out some of my chaos.

First, we'll make the final decision tomorrow after the 7 pm Hurricane Center update, but evacuation is most likely. We're on the east side of the storm, and that's the wet side. Even if it makes landfall around Houma (about 90 miles south and west of us), this is a big storm and all around the NOLA area will gets lots of wind and water. I don't relish a few days without power, and possible flooding in other parts causing a delay in restoring power and even water - and that would be one of the best-case scenarios.

If it moves way further west, say landfall in Lake Charles, then we'll stay, as there's really no rooms left at the inns to the east and north; the place we have reserved now would be in the line of fire; and its unlikely NOLA would be as adversely affected -- that's the best-case scenario.

Worse, if it strengthens to a four, as it might, and just barrels along, it won't make a turn and it might be on a path much closer to the city. We should have a clearer idea about that by tomorrow afternoon/evening.

My partner's father and his partner, along with an uncle and aunt (all in their 70s and 80s) are in Thibodaux, just miles from Houma. They don't want to evac for less than a Cat Four. They're old. They dread long hours in a car. Two have had major surgeries in the past year, and are a bit frail. Hey, old men have to pee alot. It's intimidating for them.

So, we may have to make a 6-7 hour detour south to Thibby, up to Marksville (where they have a place with family), and back on our path north to Shreveport. This is all against a backdrop of "contraflow," wherein the highway system is turned into an efficient exit-only mode -- the state police aren't going to be happy with anyone heading south, TOWARD the storm, even if only for a brief detour.

I spent today gathering food, water and batteries, because you have to have the "In case we stay" set up as well as the "In case we go" arrangements. We'll finish the "in case we go" work tomorrow and get ready to be on the road about 4 or 5 a.m Sunday. We're well along with it already. Stay or go, we're meeting up with our neighbor to clean guns and do a little safety review.

In the meantime, I'm the tech support person for my department, so I spent this evening unplugging computers and moving them away from windows; coaching senior faculty and a few nervous TAs on how to backup their files, and use Blackboard to post assignments and syllabi. Since I'm on the Geek Squad, I've also been drafted to help staff our Administrative office in our Second Life campus, once I'm settled in my hotel. Good grief, I am an avatar.

I have hunted and gathered all but the pet tranqs -- I pick them up tomorrow a.m. The gas tanks are full. The pet carriers are out and ready to be set up.

All of this is interspersed with calls to and from friends. Are you staying, are you going? Text me!

And I dropped a hundred bucks somewhere in Sam's Club. Just fell right out of my pocket, probably the nth time I pulled my iPhone out to take a call. I'm built for comfort, not for speed, and all this running around has me a bit frazzled.

I guess I'm going into all this detail because the question "has Beth evacuated yet?" opens a floodgate (unintentionally poor choice of words). I'm in the thick of the process, stay or go. We are going to make the right decision -- once the data point us in the right direction.

There's a lot of physical work to be done tomorrow: gotta bring in plants (dammit! my porch orchids just started blooming); gotta stow the grills, garbage cans, just about anything that can be a missile. Remove the heavy rear car seats to make room for our stuff. Laundry! Clean out the fridge and run the dishwasher. Check on the old folks in the neighborhood - some of them won't leave, so we'll store the supplies I bought today in our shed and let them know they're welcome to the food and water if they need it.

Right! So, now, I'm going to have a nice bath with some Kneipp herbal goodness, perhaps a strong beverage, and read a book. I'll keep y'all posted once we're actually hitting the road.

My hair grew back light golden blonde, with this silly curl on the top of my head. It must have been there by about 6 months, because a portrait my mom had taken of me went on to be featured as one of those "Christmas Baby" PSAs you used to see on TeeVee. I think I posted that picture from 1961 once, long ago.